Gustafson, Leslie J., 1906-1996.

Leslie J. Gustafson, the second son of Joseph William and Olga Marie Gustafson, was born in Duluth, Minnesota on December 1, 1906. In 1911 Leslie and his older brother Herbert were sent to Nopeming Sanatorium, the first tuberculosis preventorium in Minnesota. The brothers were among the first group to occupy the newly constructed childrens' cottage. Joseph Gustafson died from tuberculosis in 1912. Leslie returned home in 1916 and entered school in Duluth. After his mother's marriage to Charles J. Fremling in 1919 the family moved to Buhl, Minnesota where Leslie graduated from high school in 1923. In 1925 he graduated from Hibbing Junior College. He continued his education at the University of Minnesota where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927. The following year he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from the University's College of Education. In 1938 Gustafson received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota.

Gustafson's first teaching position was at the Lyle, Minnesota high school where he taught science and history and acted as the high school principal from 1928 to 1930. Gustafson served the next seven years as principal and instructor of history and social science at the Barnesville, Minnesota high school. In January 1937 he was appointed assistant principal of the junior-senior high school in Austin, Minnesota and in September 1937 was promoted to principal, a position he held for the next seven years. In August 1944 Gustafson became superintendent of the public school system in Owatonna, Minnesota.

In 1956 Gustafson accepted an appointment as associate professor in the psychology and education department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1958 he was named acting chairman of the college's education department. In 1962 Gustafson was one of five educators chosen by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) to travel to Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanganyika for seven weeks in order to study contributions that ACM faculty members and graduates might make to training teachers in Africa. Gustafson was appointed director of St. Olaf's placement bureau in 1967 and retired in 1972. He died in 1996.

Leslie Gustafson married Walterine Marie Barry on August 19th, 1936. The couple had no children.

Walterine Marie Gustafson was born in Felton, Minnesota on August 12, 1911 to Samuel H. and Lucinda Barry. The Barry family later moved to Moorhead, Minnesota where Walterine graduated from high school in 1929. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in home economics from the North Dakota Agricultural College in 1933 and completed an internship in dietetics at the Medical College, University of Virginia at Richmond. She taught home economics in the Barnesville public schools for two years and married Leslie Gustafson in August 1936. In 1956 Walterine joined the staff of the Northfield Hospital where she worked for nine years as the hospital's dietician. After leaving the hospital she served as a consulting dietitian in various hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement centers until her husband's retirement in 1972. Walterine Gustafson died on May 16, 1979.

Olga Marie Fremling was born in Altoona, Wisconsin on December 3, 1883 to Sten Peter and Johanna Pearson. After graduating from high school she worked as a domestic servant in various friends' homes. In 1902 she married Joseph W. Gustafson and moved to Duluth, Minnesota. After Joseph Gustafson's death in 1912 Olga went to work at the George A. Gray Company, a Duluth department store, where she was a leader in Red Cross work during World War I. In August 1919 Olga married Charles J. Fremling and moved to Buhl, Minnesota, where she lived the remainder of her life. Charles Fremling died in 1949. Olga Fremling died on April 18, 1961.